Activists Try to Add Touch of the Divine to Disputed Islands

A territorial feud at the heart of rising tensions between China and Japan came into focus yet again Thursday when a group of activists from Taiwan and Hong Kong tried to land on the disputed Diaoyu Islands, known as Senkaku in Japan.

The group of four activists along with three fishermen departed from northern Taiwan at 1:45 am on Thursday under the escort of Taiwan’s Coast Guard Administration. The boat turned back at 11:30 am without landing on the islands.

European Pressphoto Agency

A handout picture made available by the Taiwan Coast Guard on Jan. 24, 2013 and taken on April 7, 2012 shows a Japanese (C) and a Taiwan coastguard ship (R) in a standoff near the Senkaku Islands (also known as Diaoyu Islands). On Jan. 24, seven Taiwanese and Hong Kong activists and fishermen sailed to the islands to try to place a statue of Matzu (Goddess of the Sea), to assert Chinese and Taiwanese sovereignty over the uninhabited islands controlled by Japan. Press reports said the trawler reached within 40 km of the disputed islands, but was blocked by eight Japanese Coast Guard ships.

Taiwanese fishermen have long claimed the waters around the islands are part of their traditional fishing ground. The group said their goal was to erect a statue of Matzu, the Goddess of Sea, on the islands to protect Taiwanese fishing vessels.

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Long simmering tensions between China and Japan over the uninhabited islands rose to a rolling boil in September, when Japan’s government announced plans to purchase several of the islands from a Japanese family. The news sparked anti-Japanese protests in China that led to the trashing of Japanese restaurants and Japanese-made cars in China, and there is growing concern in foreign policy circles that provocations on both sides could spark a military conflict.

Though nationalist sentiment on both sides has been a factor in the conflict, there are economic concerns as well: Aside from fish, the area around the islands is also believed by some to contain significant oil and gas deposits.

Taiwan, which also claims sovereignty over the islands, has stayed mostly on the sidelines in the dispute, content to let fishermen and activists press its claim.

According to the Taiwan Coast Guard, there was a brief exchange of water spraying between the Taiwanese and Japanese patrol boat on Thursday morning but no major altercations occurred.

Taiwan’s foreign ministry said its Japanese counterpart had lodged a protest against the action by the fishermen, adding that one possible repercussion could be a delay on long-stalled Taiwan-Japan fishing rights negotiations, most recently scheduled to take place in late January or early February.

Though the failure of the Taiwanese fishermen to land on the islands might cause some small measure of embarrassment, it is by no means the first time activists have seen a Diaoyu protest go awry. In July, a Taiwanese protestor found himself being mocked at home and on the Chinese Internet after he expressed his anger at Japanese patrol boats by waving a Chinese flag, which later ended up in the water.

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